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Monday, March 7, 2011

Achooooo! Achooo! Achooo! Ugh!~!

Well my nose has announced that spring is coming. I am allergic to tons of stuff. I had to get an Epi shot the last time I was tested for allergies because I started having trouble breathing. The doc was amazed at how many things I reacted to.

I am even allergic to grass which sucked when I was growing up. I can't tell you how many times I spent the evening in a bathtub with oatmeal because I just couldn't resist playing on the
grass with other kids.

I love spring time with the green grass, flowers blooming, and gardens ripe with fruit and vegetables. I love all of these things but it comes at a price with my darned nose. I smell it and know what is coming next. Non-stop sneezing til my meds kick in. But at a certain point even those don't work anymore and I have to just live with it and look funny with a sore and red nose.

Growing up with allergies was hard because there were only a couple of medicines that you could take, not like today with an over abundance. In those days, after an attack, you would get an oil based Epinephrine shot to help with keeping the symptoms at bay for several hours. Only side effect was that you felt like a jittery puppet. Think of what you would feel like after drinking 12 Espresso's at once. Your mind races a hundred miles an hour and your body is shaky and jittery. Plus the shot was given in your butt cheek and felt like a walnut.

While we were on a trip around the United States I had an especially bad attack and ended up in the ER again. Here we are at 3 am, in the middle of Virginia, and doing the same old stuff again. Nebulizers, meds, and that dang shot. But my parents were cool as cucumbers. They were used to it and figured it would happen sometime during the trip. They could always count on me being the predictable one with either an allergy attack, broken hearing aid, or sick.

I can't count how many times I was in the ER for allergic reactions and asthma attacks. Between my hearing aids and medical stuff, I was the kid that my parents got maximum itemized deduction on their taxes. They actually celebrated with some fancy champagne the year that they didn't qualify and had to take the standard deduction. Today I have outgrown the asthma attacks and just have to deal with the seasonal allergy attacks.

So I look forward to the coming spring knowing it comes with a double edged sword. Fresh fruit and veggies and non-stop sneezing.